Tiger Woods...calling Tiger Woods...

[Brian Manzella]

Tiger.

I can't BEAR TO WATCH ANY MORE!!!!


Your left hand grip is too weak for you. Turn the clubface closed in your left hand about 5-10 degrees.

After you do that, STOP rotating your left arm so much in the backstroke. And while you're at it, get your left thumb a bit more under the club at the top. You'll need to—and be able to—with the new grip.

Then just let the club fall on to the elbow plane and keep the grip end of the club as close to your left leg as possible through impact.

You're welcome.

 

[bendet3]

Couldn't take it anymore eh B-man? Could I ask you about the "keep the grip end of the club as close to your left leg as possible through impact." comment? I don't think I've heard you mention this before. I wonder if it is along the lines of a question I was going to ask, one of the forum member provided a link to Sergio's swing and I noticed that from behind, coming into impact, Sergio's lead arm pointed straight down, i.e. if you drew a line from his shoulder down through his arm and out his hand, it was perpindicular to the ground, even with his driver. I always thought that that lead arm usually almost pointed at the ball at impact?

 

[Garth]

Tiger.

I can't BEAR TO WATCH ANY MORE!!!!


Your left hand grip is too weak for you. Turn the clubface closed in your left hand about 5-10 degrees.

After you do that, STOP rotating your left arm so much in the backstroke. And while you're at it, get your left thumb a bit more under the club at the top. You'll need to—and be able to—with the new grip.

Then just let the club fall on to the elbow plane and keep the grip end of the club as close to your left leg as possible through impact.

You're welcome.

I really hate to second guess you Bman; but... I don't understand how his grip is too weak. His release is very "arms-agressive", so if he strengthened his grip - wouldn't he hook it to Australia?

 

[Burner]

I really hate to second guess you Bman; but... I don't understand how his grip is too weak. His release is very "arms-agressive", so if he strengthened his grip - wouldn't he hook it to Australia?

Did you not see the third paragraph of BM's post?

 

[Ringer]

Tiger.

I can't BEAR TO WATCH ANY MORE!!!!


Your left hand grip is too weak for you. Turn the clubface closed in your left hand about 5-10 degrees.

After you do that, STOP rotating your left arm so much in the backstroke. And while you're at it, get your left thumb a bit more under the club at the top. You'll need to—and be able to—with the new grip.

Then just let the club fall on to the elbow plane and keep the grip end of the club as close to your left leg as possible through impact.

You're welcome.

So he's gone weak has he? Thumb on top of the shaft at address is it? Amazing how many people get the grip wrong.

I'll have to tape the re-airing on ESPN so I can have a look-see.

 

[Dana Dahlquist]

Brian you and I talked about it a while ago about his old grip. He has alot of winning information with that old grip. Like to also see something of its sorts make a comeback....But all this clubface on the off plane stuff has to go.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

I'm going to disagree, i don't think his grip is too weak. He can keep it and the majority of his swing. IMO (and i'm posted on this before) he has 2 main issues he needs to stop doing:

1) He needs to stop over rotating his left arm to the plane, it's the root of his problem with his bad shots.

2) He needs to understand that if he wants to NEVER miss left he needs to SWING more left.

To expand on 2), you'd think the best player in the world would understand that but then why is he obsessed with swinging to the right with his driver? Fix his left arm rotation, give him a better idea of where the plane is and he'd be fine.

 

[Bigwill]

I've read about tiger talking about being able to the inside-aft quadrant, even when trying to hit a fade. Could he be over doing it?

 

[tongzilla]

Could I ask you about the "keep the grip end of the club as close to your left leg as possible through impact." comment?

you swing more to the left when you do that.

 

[Damon Lucas]

So Tiger did pretty good today(Sat)...

What is it apart from his physical prowess and mental faculties that enable him to play a round like today?

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

He wasn't swinging too far to the right for the majority of the day and didn't try to kill the ball with the driver, however he did a few times and those were some wayward shots.

To be honest, Tiger had his "range game" out on the course today. If any of you ever get to see Tiger hit balls on the range i urge you too. It looks nothing like his "tournament swing" especially with the driver. However his driver swing today looked just like it does on the range: smooth, powerful and in control.

 

[Damon Lucas]

So Jim,

Why doesn't he take his range game to the course?

If the things he works on work well on the range, and he is smart enough to have 'play' thoughts separate from his range thoughts, what is different?

I thought he killed several drives today. Surely he didn't change swing thoughts mid tournament(esp a US Open!). Is it possible that it is something else besides your perception that he swings too far to the right?

Let's have some ideas as to what is great about his swing as well...

Damon

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

Why can't any of us bring our range games to the course? That's golf man. He did kill a lot of drives today, i didn't describe what i mean well.

All of his "tee ball" swings including drivers (except for 1 or 2 i saw) were all very much in rythym and control. When he really trys to go after one he does his "squat move" and usually the result isn't that good.

That's what i meant.

 

[Chris Sturgess]

Yeah he did hit an amazing 17 greens on Saturday so it's hard to have a problem with his swing right now.

But I also don't like how he's been weakening his grip, rotating his arms a lot and generally trying to swing like Hogan. I think he should try to swing like Tiger, the 2000 version.

 

[tongzilla]

Too weak?

Practice range in US Open 2007.

The two red lines are parallel.

 

[Damon Lucas]

Why can't any of us bring our range games to the course? That's golf man. He did kill a lot of drives today, i didn't describe what i mean well.

All of his "tee ball" swings including drivers (except for 1 or 2 i saw) were all very much in rythym and control. When he really trys to go after one he does his "squat move" and usually the result isn't that good.

That's what i meant.

We as instructors HAVE to work out how to bring the range game to the course. Not easy sometimes, but we have to work that one out just as much as neutralising a weak grip!

What do you think of the squat move? Or ground force reactions? Do they work with or against all the rotational forces in the golf swing, especially Tiger's?

What do you think of Baddelley's swing?

 

[puttmad]

What do you think of the squat move? Or ground force reactions? Do they work with or against all the rotational forces in the golf swing, especially Tiger's?

Damon, Bobby Shaeffer covers this quite well...He says the golf swing is a combination of a vertical jump (with both legs) and a pirouette around the left leg/foot...
I think the combination of both at the same time probably places limits on both as individual movements...

Personally I don't like the squat move as it moves C7, top-center of the shoulder blades up and down, thus chnging the swing arc center, which than has to be recovered ACCURATELY before impact... It is probably OK for pros who are beating balls all day, but I think for the average amateur, with their limited practice time, the timing and precision needed to recover C7 to its correct position in space are probably unattainable.

Ground force reaction is OK as long as it is done without raising or lowering C7 while doing it, unless you are a pro and can practice it mercilessly.....

 

[self-mastery]

The whole concept of having a "range game" and a different game on the golf course is silly. A driving range is a CONTROLLED environment. We play differently on the course because we are presented with a host of obstacles and every shot is different.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

The whole concept of having a "range game" and a different game on the golf course is silly. A driving range is a CONTROLLED environment. We play differently on the course because we are presented with a host of obstacles and every shot is different.

Range game is different that "range swing." To be able to take your "range swing" to be your "on course swing" is really more of a mental challenge and needs to be conquered on your own.

As you say the driving range is a controlled environment so when you hit 2 bad shots out of 10 practice shots you know, in your head, they don't matter. You're "practicing." On the course you get that anxiety fear of "i hope i don't do this, i hope i don't do that" and from my limited experience into the mental side of the game this just sets you up for bad shots.

I've always told students to:

Pick a shot
See the shot
Tell yourself you're going to do that shot
Step up and hit it

If it didn't quite work as you imagined that's ok, but lots of times you'd be surprised.